Ezer Kenegdo
by Elexies
Summary: The devil went down to Georgia, and Elijah really isn't sure what to make of him. But between the devil or her fanatical father, she's willing to take her chances with "the enemy." Djei'kiand likewise is at a loss when it comes to the strange Ooman, so curious, full of zest, and fearful, but with a looming prophecy threatening his people, she might be exactly what he needs.


_Eee I'm back =) for a bit at least lol I'm in my last semester of grad school so luckily things are winding down a little bit. My internship this semester is a bit more intense than my last ones though, since I'm working alongside a local Urban Mission to start a free counseling program for the homeless. I can safely say I had no idea just how much work went into starting a program. _

_In any case, this idea kind of hit me out of nowhere so I'm going to go along with it and see where it takes me. Hope you guys will be willing to join the ride ;) As always I own nothing of Predator- though I wouldn't mind one of my own! Constructive criticism is always welcome and thank you for reading!_

* * *

Demons overtook the farm.

That's the only way Elijah could think to describe it. Not that Pa would believe her by any means; after all, he said nothing fell out of her mouth except the devil's lies. But there was a chance he'd believe this. Her father had a flair and love for hellfire and damnation that could set a nervous tickle alight in even the most stout of atheist's lower backs, a worried trickle of sweat down the spine, that creepy crawly feeling of maybe, just _maybe _they might say a little Our Father before they fell asleep. It was what had kept her on her toes and obedient for so many years. Not a love of God but a passionate _terror _of the devil, and her father. He'd frightened her with brimstone and hellfire since she was three. He had a passion for damnation. So if she told him of just how _much _damnation had overtaken the farm, there was a _chance _he'd go along with it.

So it wasn't impossible that Pa might believe her, but…

It seemed too surreal. Demons overtook the farm. She sat on the border of the forest where horse pastures met eerie and hushed woodland and watched the horrible fires dance wild and furious in the Georgia night. Down below in the valley she could see the town ablaze and the flashing lights of a multitude of emergency vehicles. The more present disaster to her though: her childhood home. The entire house was a smoldering frame of bad memories, and in the distance she could still see the occasional four-legged monstrosity prowling the field and their bipedal keepers dispatching of them one by one. Whatever purpose the demons had been summoned for, they'd apparently served it, and Elijah could gather the only way to return them to the fiery depths of Hell was to cast them down, not that the beast wanted to return without a fight it seemed. They rounded on the bipedal masters a multitude of times, far more vicious than any rabid dog and far more cunning than any snake. She couldn't fathom what their reason for being on earth was for. Halloween was still four days out, and it sure would've seemed a more appropriate day to set the Georgia town of Maltoona into bedlam, even a Sunday would've been preferable. Not a Wednesday, four days before all hallows eve when people would be expecting some sort of wickedness. Maybe that was the point though. Not to be expecting it.

She blew out some air quietly, sinking further against the trunk of a pine tree. Her pajama bottoms stuck against her skin, damp, and despite the humidity and heat of the night, she shivered. Her red hair sat in a tangled, singed, and sticky mess against her neck, overly hot in the night, and fitfully she gathered it up and held it atop her head, off her neck and shoulders. It was abnormally warm for October. It only added to the surrealism of the night. It felt more like it was in the middle of August, not the beginning of fall.

Elijah had been hearing strange reports on the radio all day before the creatures moved from town and out into the country. They took to her home in droves, tearing up the once charming two-story farmhouse in frenzied attempts for her life. Their masters had appeared not too long after, trying to reign in the minions, and setting everything to pandemonium in the process. Their explosive fighting had knocked down walls, tore out light fixtures, downright crushed the closet Pa had set up as a reflection chapel, before one of the master's shining weapons had hit the gas stove and set the entire house aflame in one brilliant flaming ball of annihilation. On the positive side, if the entire town was destroyed, there was less reason for Pa to disbelieve her.

Elijah stomach knotted at a hiss overhead. She didn't permit herself to look but rather rocked herself back onto her feet and further backpedaled a series of clumsy steps, just in time for one of the large, serpentine monsters to crash in the spot she'd occupied not a moment ago. It whipped around in a fury, the demon's lips quivering with frustration, exposing pointed glistening teeth. She stumbled in the pine needles and brush, not taking her eyes off of the hellion, but not sitting still either. In lieu of pouncing, it crept after her, not unlike a cat with a mouse. Elijah looked around for one of the mighty, bipedal masters to appear, praying one might dispense of this wild creature of Hell before it did away with her, but it was unrealistic to imagine to that one of the Enemy's servants would come to her aid.

"L-lord," she whispered. "He-hear muh-my prayer…listen t-to muh-my cr-cr-crh…" The creature hissed and jolted her words proper, Elijah stumbling further into the prayer and into the forest. "Cry for mercy. I-in your faithfulness and righ-rightoutsness come to my relief." She continued her retreat, rattling helplessly out the psalm. If the holy words bothered the demon, it certainly didn't show any indication. She reached up, snatching her crucifix from her neck, the chain breaking and slipping out of the loop of the pendant onto the forest floor. She thrust the small crucifix toward the demon and it paused, appearing unsure at her brazen defiance rather than disgusted with the image of the cross. Not knowing what else to do, and taking the pause as an indication perhaps she was at least doing _something _right, Elijah forced strength into her voice. "Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead! So my spirit grows faint…"

The demon shifted before her, leaning back, and its hindquarters wiggled in the preparation of a pounce. Her eyes widened and she sputtered the words faster, her voice rising into a panicked pitch.

"Answer me quickly Lord, my spirit fails! Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit! Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love for I have put my trust in you!"

The creature lunged, not waiting for the end of the prayer, and she screamed the start of the next line, a gutsy "SHOW" that surely even her Pa would've been proud of, especially considering it would be her final moments, but a high pitched crackle and then explosion cut her off and she felt the heat of electrical energy flare in front of her, then a sizzling silence followed. She blinked a few times, staring dumbly ahead of her for a moment, before it sank in that the demon that had been lunging to attack her was…no more. Nothing existed in the spot where the demon once sat, except an electrical burning and pungent ozone that stung her nostrils. Curious, since she would've expected sulfur.

Further in the distance stood one of the masters, a fantastic presence, larger and with more decoration to its armor than the other masters she'd seen thus far. Her head swam and suddenly, at a loss, the thought came. _It's the devil, it has to be. _ Monstrous and cool, this one possessed an authority that far outweighed the others she's encountered in glimpses and snatches of violence.

He lowered a small, futuristic looking gun. This close, and without the impending threat of one of its four legged minions, she realized how unusual his armor looked. She'd seen a science fiction movie once at the theater, _with_ her boyfriend and _without_ Pa's knowledge no less, and the demon's attire seemed far more befitting of a space ship than it did the bowels of Hell. She swallowed thickly, waiting for the keeper of the hell hounds to dispense with her, but he didn't do anything of the sort. Rather, he tilted his head, the mask on his face emotionless, but she felt the heat of the demon's stare.

"Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life," she exhaled, shoulders drooping. Her knees wobbled, legs threatening to give out beneath her. The creature tilted his head again in the other direction, and then strode toward her in heavy footfalls. He was massive, and this time, she couldn't find it within her to back up. He reached forward and a large clawed hand stretched out, taking the wrist of the hand she'd thrust out at his minion with surprising delicacy within his mighty grasp. The master studied the tiny golden crucifix between her thumb and forefinger, poking at the corpus on it with the claw of his thumb. She in turn stared dumbly up at the master. What flesh she could see beneath the elaborate armor and knotted nets was richly hued, a mixture of dusky reds and browns dispersed with dark black markings like the print on a lizard's tough hide. The red bled into a pale, cream color near the center of the demon's chest and down the tightly corded muscles of his abdomen. Everything about the beast was _muscle_, she didn't think for a second even an inch of fat existed on this creature. He stood at least seven or eight feet tall, and it would probably take at least two of her to wrap her arms entirely around his barreled chest.

Armor the shade of dark, aged steel protected only minimal parts of his body, along his forearms and shoulders, his shins, and a piece rested over where she imagined his heart might be, were the devil to have a heart. He was decorated with other impressive tokens, skulls and feathers, a cloak draped and pushed back on his large shoulders. He was adored in other small fineries of beautiful beads made of stones she'd never seen or pieces of exotically decorated metal that clicked or clinked in the night. The mask he wore went from its chin over the crown of his head, and thick black tresses were tightly corded, glimmering in the shadows with pieces of metal wrapped around various individual tresses. A breeze stirred around them and the metal rings clinked a charming little melody, and Elijah was struck by the weird peacefulness of the moment. The monster before her continued to study not just the crucifix now, but her own hand, tiny compared to his.

Elijah swallowed and tugged back on her wrist, and the demon released her without a struggle, making a 'chuffing' noise at her that sounded annoyingly enough like a snicker. The demon then gave a swift and fluid turn from her, and stalked away. She watched him move, her heart pounding fast enough and hard enough that her chest ached.

What? Why would the devil just leave her be? Wasn't he going to try to possess her? Or kill her? Or do something terrible that the devil so enjoyed doing? She opened her mouth, and then shut it with a click of her teeth, tilting her head and eyeing the creature moving with a surprising amount of grace for such a behemoth. A shadow flickered behind the master, to the side, and her eyes widened. One of the minions. Without thinking, without logic, she reacted. She gave a shout and bolted forward, moving noisily in the brush, and the master whipped around to see her charging him, raising his weapon at her, though he didn't fire immediately. She threw herself forward, shoving at the master, but she failed to push him anywhere. Like a brick wall, he didn't move, and she slammed into him instead, jarring herself rather than shoving him out of the path of the violent minion. The creature she'd attempted to rescue the master from slammed into both of them in turn, doing what she'd failed to do. It knocked them both over. Suddenly she found herself between two furious, flailing beasts. She heard the hissing of the demon above her, and blow her the devil snarled and roared. Amidst the thrashing of limbs there was a hot burn down her back, claws raking and taking purchase of her back and legs. She screamed, and beneath her the master withdrew a wickedly curved and long blade from the belt around his hips, and stabbed at the creature above her. It shrieked, and hot liquid rained down on her back.

If she screamed, Elijah wasn't sure. All she knew for certain was a white heat encasing her, and then nothing.

* * *

Djei'kiand felt the Ooman go limp between him and the prey above them, and the kiande amedha, tempted by a more available meal, gave itself a split second to survey her prone form. It was all Djei needed. He lashed out with his freehand, grabbing the kiande amedha by the long dome of its skull, and in a powerful swipe severed its head from its neck. The pressurized blood sprayed out and he felt the bite of its best defense mechanism along bits of his exposed flesh. He threw the beast off of him and to the side, a healthy enough distance away that, in its final remnants of life, its last twitches and lashings of its tail would be of no concern to him.

He laid on his back on the forest floor for a moment, content to just breathe and evaluate any possible, severe damage done, but there was none. In all reality, the tiny creature on his chest had absorbed the majority of blows and swipes.

He sat up best he could, mindful not to let the Ooman fall, but rather adjusted her so she lay beside him on the forest floor on her stomach. He adjusted to sit on the balls of his feet, crouching above her, and surveyed the damage done to her backside. The Ooman's move had been _stupid _to say the least, her charging him alone could've gotten her shot, had she been male he would've put a hole right through her ribcage, but as female her behavior had been more a curiosity than threat. And he could see the foolish intention behind her behavior now. Admittedly, he'd been so surprised at her erratic behavior he'd been willing to let her slam mindlessly into him just to see what exactly it was she had planned. At first, he thought perhaps it was a strange mental break down, or some ridiculous but _highly _amusing attempt to challenge him. He knew better now. She'd meant to help him, and having been between him and his prey, she'd taken the full brunt of the kiande amedha's attacks and wounds. Her entire backside was a mess.

Hot claw marks shredded the flesh of her back, shoulders, upper arms, and around her hips and buttocks. The wounds that hadn't been cauterized by the acidic blood bled freely, and in other parts, the sickly green liquid continued to eat away at the exposed muscle. Luckily for the Ooman, the kiande amedha's blood had sprayed in a multitude of directions rather than just dumping down onto her.

Djei ran his hand over the female's back, not touching but feeling the heat of her wounds against his palm. Once more, he was taken aback by the sheer size of her, remarkably small compared to him. His hand almost covered the entire expanse of her supple lower back. He cocked his head, rumbling thoughtfully.

Sunlight peeked sleepily over the horizon, the coming day completely unawares of what had taken place the previous night. He would dare to say the majority of the kiande amedha had been disposed of. Of the twenty facehuggers they'd set loose in the rural town for training purposes, eighteen of the serpents had been killed, including the one that lay still beside he and his foolish shield.

Djei'kiand didn't often partake of these training sessions for young hunters; he found their brazen, cocky arrogance annoying and ill deserved. _He _had worked hard for many cycles now to deserve _his _brazen, cocky arrogance, and he didn't particularly delight in going fist to fist with young upstarts that thought they could match their metal with his just because their testosterone was pumping and they were eager to get a few trophies for the brewing mating season. Nonetheless, his _mei'hswei_ had convinced him to go along, tempting him with visions he'd seen in his _mesh'in'ga_, the battle dreamtime. Khanu'te had always been a bit eccentric for a Yaujta, but over the years Djei'kiand had learned to trust his _mei'hswei's _visions. They'd led him to a multitude of promising hunts, both for trophies and more sensual endeavors.

Khanu'te had spoken of an exotic beast with a tongue of fire, a creature like the forges the finest of blades were fashioned in, brimming with molten potential to create and destroy. He'd spoken of not just an exhilarating madness and fight, but all consuming peace, the likes of which no rest would ever satisfy, a cool drink of water the likes of which no river would sooth.

This creature, this weapon, this silken new desire had haunted Djei'kiand's own _mesh'in'ga _for days until he finally gave in and agreed to join his _mei'hswei _on the hunt.

Now, here he sat, and while the creature before him did indeed have fiery red hair, it seemed that was the only thing that might match the description Khanu'te had given him. So suffice to say, this Ooman was not the exotic beast he'd been lured to this backwater planet with. But…she was amusing.

He surveyed her, weighing his options. He could leave her out here to die. It would be the natural thing to do. She'd chosen to come between a proud warrior and his prey and therefore her wounds were hers to suffer. He hesitated, eyeing her garish back. Had she not charged him though, it was possible he might not have noticed the approaching danger. Not that the serpent would've done him much harm. He'd seen too many hunts and his fair share of battles to be concerned by a renegade kiande amedha. Arrogant though he was, Djei'kiand was not a young upstart like the students his _mei'hswei _and he had brought here. He had sired a multitude of pups already, many of them beginning to gain their own honor and trophies. Djei'kiand was in the prime of adulthood. A kiande amedha, while indeed deadly in its ferocity and stealth, was still ultimately a predictable, base creature that lacked in truly dangerous cognition.

The young hunters out and about were more a danger to Djei'kiand's welfare than their hunted prey. One of the enthusiastic idiots had nearly killed two other students with an ill aimed shot that had set an entire house to ash. He paused at the thought, leaning over the Ooman and grabbed her chin, regarding her more seriously now. It was possible she was the same one he'd already seen dodging kiande amedha earlier that night, especially with how close to the destroyed house she was. Then to come upon her spouting nonsense to one of the prey, standing knock-kneed and trembling before it with nothing more than a pendant thrust forward like some superstitious talisman between her and the predator. He snorted in amusement, studying her.

While not his preferred form of prey, Ooman were interesting in their variety, and the female was no different. Long limbed, her figure was soft with lush curves common to Ooman females. Her suntanned skin was dotted with freckles and her hair a mass of red curls. He took up a handful of spirals, felt their springiness and softness in his palm, and then released, allowing them to fall back into place around her face.

It would be dishonorable to allow her to perish here, he decided. Foolish though she was, _stupid _though she was, she had nerve. She'd managed to survive the kiande amedha breaking into her home, one of the young hunters blowing up her house, standing before one of the serpents with nothing more than empty words and a pendant to protect her, and had come between him and a potential, though not fatal, threat. It seemed unfair to punish all of that bravado with a slow death in the woods. He ran his hand over the aggravated flesh of her back and she whimpered in her sleep. Djei'kiand rumbled in amusement, hooking an arm beneath the young creature and placed her over his shoulder.


End file.
